100% agreement here on all points. School breakfast programs have been a pet peeve of mine since my son was in elementary school. I was on the PTA committee and we spent inordinate amounts of money and time running that program. I was always opposed to having it in the first place and suggested that we knew who the impoverished families were (240 kids in the school) and could discreetly give their child(ren) some fruit, milk and a protein/breakfast bar without having a full-fledged program for everyone. The other parents and teachers on the committee thought I was quite mean to take such a position. They said they didn’t want to embarrass the neglected or very poor children so they voted for the policy that EVERY child could participate. The kids came to see it as a pre-class fun time with their friends and a warm place to be on cold winter mornings. About 2/3 of the kids in the school came for breakfast and almost all fundraising ended up going to that one program instead of events like school trips to orchards/pumpkin farms, theatre and museum visits, and gardening programs.
I didn’t know enough at that time to understand that the goal was for schools/teachers/governments to slowly assume responsibility for my child to the point where parents would eventually have none, and no rights either. We changed schools after a couple of years for reasons unrelated to the breakfast program and I heard they limited it the year after we left to … kids who really needed it! Being right too soon can make you very unpopular.
School breakfast programs... The kids came to see it as a pre-class fun time with their friends
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I cannot count the number of complete breakfasts and lunches that were immediately dropped into the trash can by students as they exited the cafeteria without taking a single bite. When I pointed this out, most responses were “So what. It was free.”